Country Music Inspired Getaways

Bristol in Tennessee is known as the birthplace of country music. The Birthplace of Country Music Museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, tells the story of the 1927 Bristol Sessions, exploring how evolving sound technology shaped their success, and highlights how this rich musical heritage lives on in today’s music. Tennessee Music Pathways tells the story of Tennessee’s musical heritage and its influences around the world and showcases the state’s live music scene. From the largest cities to the smallest communities, Tennessee Music Pathways stretches across all 95 counties and features hundreds of landmarks from the seven genres of music that call Tennessee home.

Mississippi’s newest country music attraction is Marty Stuart’s Congress of Country Music in Philadelphia, Mississippi. The legendary performer and five-time Grammy winner is developing a 50,000-square-foot campus featuring a performing arts centre (now open in the newly renovated Ellis Theatre) and, coming soon, a world-class country music museum stocked with items from Stuart’s personal collection, one of the world’s largest private collections of country music artifacts and memorabilia.

Radio station KWKH in Shreveport is central to the story of country music in Louisiana. Owned and run by radio pioneer W. K. Henderson, the station helped promote acts such as singer and later two-term governor of Louisiana, Jimmie Davis (“Nobody's Darlin' But Mine” and "You Are My Sunshine").